Tazza Kitchen

12/15/13:

Stars: 4.7 out of 5.0

Pros: Atmosphere, Friendly Service, Gluten Free & Varied Menu, Food

Cons: I Hate Driving in Short Pump

      MC and I had to face the truth... it had been WAY to long since we broke bread together. This had to be rectified immediately. Since MC had a friend in town (AC), we decided that meeting for breakfast was a wise and necessary choice. And breakfast clears up hangovers, which we both knew would be the situation for a Sunday morning.

     MC, as is the case 90% of the time, chose our destination. She tends to choose pretty damn good places, so I allow it. This time she chose Tazza Kitchen (Tazza Kitchen). Tazza Kitchen is located in the Short Pump Crossing off of Pump Rd. I know that I have driven by it in the past without knowing it was there as it's not pretentious on the outside. The first thing I noticed when I pulled up was the large outdoor sitting area complete with fire place.Upon stepping inside, I was immediately impressed. The rustic, almost cabiny feeling of the building is permeating in the best way possible. The fire place is double sided so there is one on the inside as well. The colors are soothing and inviting. Regardless of where in the restaurant you are sitting, you seem to get the woodsy feeling. I personally loved it.

     After we were sat, our waitress appeared at our table. She was super bubbly and overly friendly. She seemed like one of those people who is good-natured on a 24 hour basis. She tolerated my bad jokes which truly speaks volumes. When AC told the waitress she was gluten-free, she went and got the manager. He brought over a special gluten-free menu and took a moment to go over it with her. He showed a genuine interest in making sure she was satisfied with everything before leaving us back to our waitress. I am a big fan of a motivated and attentive staff. Tazza Kitchen certainly has that in spades.

    As we studied the menu, we all took a second to look over the gluten-free menu. It was really quite impressive. It offered a lot of different options and didn't pin the eater down into a few bland choices. Having watched my sister attempt to find gluten-free food to eat back in the day, I know that the struggle is real. It is always great to see a restaurant take care of all their customers. After seeing how great their gluten-free menu was, I eagerly read over the standard menu. It was excellent with a nice variety of breakfast dishes to choose from. My eye was immediately drawn to the Huevos Rancheros. MC went with the breakfast pizza and AC went with steak & eggs. All excellent choices.

     Our waitress brought us our meal. The smells were intoxicating. Before she left the table she also made sure to top off our waters. She was excellent about that. I also really loved the water bottles. I've seen them before and have always appreciated them. She was very good about pushing full ones on us on a regular basis. All three meals looked stunning. They weren't huger, but were perfect size for each of us. My huevos was a wonderful blend of flavors and textures. I was certainly very pleased. I also had a piece of breakfast pizza (thank you MC) and that was GREAT. It just melded together perfectly. The fried/baked eggs were beautifully cooked and the crust was crisp. I loved it. The steak & eggs looked to be spot on. The steak had a perfect rare/med-rare color to it. I was actually pretty envious of it.

     Tazza Kitchen impressed great vibes upon me from the moment I arrived to the moment I left. It was the perfect storm of great things I want to see out of a restaurant. Aside from the fact that I rather allow deranged iguanas to nibble my toes off rather then drive in Short Pump, it's a must attend all the time. I will muster up some bravery soon enough and when I do I will spend it all in pursuit of another great experience at Tazza Kitchen.